How a Nordic Industrial-Tech Partner Actually Runs the Funnel, and What Emerging Managers Must Prove in 2026 with Sagar Chandna

Episode 5 - How a Nordic Industrial-Tech Partner Actually Runs the Funnel (with Sagar Chandna, RunwayFBU)About SagarSagar Chandna is Senior Partner and CTO at RunwayFBU, an industrial tech VC backed by one of Norway’s largest industrial groups. A Top 100 Data-Driven VC Leader, he brings experience from scaling global technology platforms and investing in deep tech companies across Europe.Bullet highlights:- Why 2025 was “one of the hardest” fundraising years for European emerging managers.- How RunwayFBU uses automation and AI for sourcing and evaluation instead of relying on interns and manual rubrics.- Why industrial tech is still stuck in the “90s” and why only around 3% of captured industrial data is used today.- What a credible emerging manager looks like in Sagar’s eyes: platform, ecosystem, and more than capital.- Regulation as safety belt and moat in industrial contexts where it helps and where it overreaches.- How LPs with “skin in the game” beyond capital think differently, and what this means for GP–LP relationships.- Thoughts on exits, AI “massacring” generic SaaS TAMs, and the future of data vs intuition in investing.- Why Nordic founders will increasingly look at Asia, Africa and other emerging markets as next steps beyond Europe. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com